Photo by Walter Rossini

BOSTON — Boston University stormed out to a five-goal lead it would never relinquish, beating Merrimack College, 5-2, on Tuesday night at Agganis Arena. Jordan Heywood potted a pair of goals for the Warriors and Sam Marotta made 16 saves in the first period before Rasmus Tirronen stopped 14 of 16 shots over the final two frames.

Matt O’Connor made 32 saves for his first win in 81 days for the Terriers. Matt Nieto scored two goals while Sahir Gill, Wade Megan and Evan Rodrigues added others.

D-Zone breakdowns: The Warriors d-zone coverage was maybe as bad as it’s been all season. Evan Rodrigues’ goal was a nice play on his part, fending off Jordan Heywood on a 2-on-1 and flipping a backhander through Sam Marotta, but I’d imagine it’s one Marotta probably wants back. BU’s second goal, which came after Garrett Noonan faked a slapper from the right point and fed Wade Megan in the middle, was a situation where Megan had way too much time to do what he wanted with the puck. BU outnumbered Merrimack in front of their own net on BU’s third goal, knocking home a rebound. Matt Nieto’s first goal came after it appeared the Warriors’ two deepest defenders were a pair of forwards and Danny O’Regan fed him in the middle and beat Tirronen with a one-timer. Nieto’s second goal appeared to be a product of the Terriers stretching — though I’d need to see the video to know for sure — beating Tirronen in a breakaway.

Bad Matchup: Merrimack has struggled against BU all season, outscoring the Warriors 12-4 in the three games. I’m not sure what the problem there is other than just calling it a bad matchup.

Stretching it out: Merrimack went into its stretch early in the game, which was out of the norm for what they’ve done most of this season. The first time they stretched it caught the entire BU bench off guard, so much so that BU head coach Jack Parker admitted it after the game. They stretched a lot a few years ago, because they had to. Now, I like they way they sprinkle it in here and there.

Two schools of thought: Merrimack had plenty of shots on goal, and to be honest, had plenty of scoring chances. The Warriors have just 1.75 goals per game in the last four contests, but in all of them, I thought they had plenty of chances. Even that BC game on Sunday, the Warriors had over 40 shots on goal and only managed to pot one goal. There’s two schools of thought in these situations. You could either belong to the school that the Warriors are generating plenty of chances, and at some point, those will start to translate into more goals. Or, you could make the argument that they haven’t found enough players who can finish, and the trend could continue through the end of the season.

Not on the keeper: Other than Rodrigues’ goal, which appeared to sneak between Marotta’s arm and body, the Warrior goaltender had little chance on the other three goals in the second period and, like I wrote above, Tirronen was at a severe disadvantage on both goals he allowed.

Nice night for a frosh: It didn’t appear this way on that stat sheet (0 points, -2) but I thought Ben Bahe had a terrific game. He has good speed and has been in the lineup almost all season for a reason, he plays smart.

Plenty to play for: Take the Pairwise out of it. If you’re Merrimack, you can’t even concern yourself with that anymore. But, especially at this point in the season, I believe you have to take a look at the entire season as a whole and, in most cases, you are what you are. Merrimack’s offense has struggled this year, averaging a little over 2.5 goals per game. Usually, that’s not good enough. But, they’ve also defended incredibly well and, despite tonight, especially 5-on-5.

If you take a look at the standings, Merrimack is one point out of first place with two weeks to go in the regular season. If you’re of the mindset that “you are what you are,” then Merrimack is still right in the mix going after a regular-season title.